Dinosaurs are animals, and animals are not monsters.

I watched 65 (2023), that movie with Adam Driver years ago and hated it, but I could never really identify why until lately. This rant dissects the movie and doesn't spare any spoilers, so read ahead if you already watched it or don't care (I assure you you're not missing much anyway).

So this movie starts decently, a guy and his family, he has to leave for a mission. The acting is alright, I like Adam Driver's work, and the other characters don't add much so I didn't care about them.

So this guy travels to a different planet and has an poopsie during landing, ejects himself and his ship crashes a bit far from where he lands.

He is now stranded and the planet is full of hostile critters. So far so good, simple premise, a mild suspense film. Our guy needs to get to his ship so he can GTFO, so he has to walk through treacherous terrain. Oh, and he finds some girl he has to protect now from these creatures that lurk around.

Oh, but it turns out this is actually ancient Earth, and the monsters are actually dinosaurs. Heh, cute twist, very planet of the apes-y but backwards.

And here is where my problem began, the dinos behaved in a super weird way. One second they're acting like mindless, bloodthirsty movie monsters that pop out of nowhere, and the next they're coordinating or exhibiting weirdly calculated behavior that real animals just don't do.

Of course, there's no way to know what dinosaurs actually behaved like, but one thing is certain: dinosaurs are animals, and animals are driven by basic survival instincts.

Animals (including carnivores) avoid unnecessary danger, they get confused, they conserve energy, and they react to specific environmental cues. But in 65, the dinosaurs felt less like real creatures roaming an ecosystem and more like generic video game enemies that spawn just to chase the characters down a hallway, executing calculated, human-like ambushes and going after our guys as if they were holding grudges.

And it gets worse and worse as the movie progresses.

They attack with no regard to their own safety, don't back away even if hurt, go all out like silly old fashioned action movie bad guys, WHILE exhibiting smarter and smarter behavior. What the fuck?

The final battle was the worst thing, written like the dinos were cartoon villains hell-bent on attacking our guys as they fight back and injure them badly.

I think I generally do a good job at suspension of disbelief while watching fiction and fantasy, but this move left me feeling awful about it.

And now that I finally rationalized why 65 felt so wrong, I started seeing it in many other places. Animals should behave as animals, and if you want to make them scary movie characters, then YOU have to adapt your story to how they actually behave.